Masters by Research programmes

Choose from a range of Masters by Research programmes in English Literature and related disciplines.

What can I study?

All our MSc by Research programmes are open for 2020 entry.

Masters by Research in English Literature I

This highly flexible programme enables you to complete a Masters by Research (MScR) degree through a combination of coursework (two essays of 6,000 words on topics related to your research focus, plus assignments in research skills and methods) and a final dissertation of 15,000 words. Drawing on our academic staff’s extensive breadth of expertise, we can support research in any period of English and Scottish Literature, and in all modes of literary analysis: including literary and critical theory, the history of the book, cultural studies, gender studies, post-colonial literature and American studies.

Masters by Research in English Literature II

This programme enables you to focus entirely on a research project of your own devising, for which you’ll receive training in research skills and methods and write a 30,000 word dissertation under expert supervision. Drawing on our academic staff’s extensive breadth of expertise, we can support research in any period of English and Scottish Literature, and in all modes of literary analysis: including literary and critical theory, the history of the book, cultural studies, gender studies, post-colonial literature and American studies.

Masters by Research in American Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of American literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. We offer supervision in all areas of American literature, enabling you to critical engage with US writing from first colonisation to the present, exploring topics as diverse as the Black Atlantic, postmodernist fiction, and the poetics of republicanism.

Masters by Research in Critical Theory

While all our postgraduate programmes invite you to study literature in relation to relevant critical and theoretical paradigms, this programme is specifically designed to allow you to focus on the study of critical theory itself as a distinctive interdisciplinary field, encompassing diverse intellectual approaches and underpinning contemporary debate in the humanities. As well as training in core research skills and methodologies specific to the field, you’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of critical theory, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision.

Masters by Research in Medieval Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of medieval literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. Offering supervision in all areas of literature of the later medieval period (roughly 1350-1550) in England and Scotland, we have particular strengths in verse and prose romance, religious and secular drama, and lyric poetry.

Masters by Research in Postcolonial Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of postcolonial literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. Our expertise spans a range of colonial and postcolonial discourse, with particular strengths in African American writing, black British writing, Canadian literature, Indian subcontinental and diasporic writing, New Zealand literature, and Pacific literature.

Masters by Research in Renaissance Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of renaissance literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. We have expertise in all areas of English literature of the 16th and early 17th centuries, with particular strengths in Renaissance drama and performance, Renaissance poetry, the politics of literature in the Renaissance, religious writing in the Renaissance, Renaissance biographical and autobiographical writing, and the relevance to the study of Renaissance literature of modern and contemporary theory.

Masters by Research in Romanticism

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of the writing, thought and culture of the Romantic period, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. We offer supervision in all areas of romanticism, and have particular strengths in philosophical approaches to romantic literature, in Irish and Scottish romanticism, and in the 18th century background to romantic literature.

Masters by Research in Scottish Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of Scottish literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. Based in a city with a long tradition of writing and publishing, we have particular strengths in medieval Scottish writing, in comparative approaches to Scottish literature, in Scotland’s transatlantic connections, in the relationship between literature and philosophy in Scotland, in 18th and 19th century writing and culture, and in modern and contemporary Scottish literature.

Masters by Research in Victorian Literature

This programme involves training in research skills, methods and problems and the completion of several pieces of writing. You’ll attend seminars and write extended essays on two aspects of Victorian literature, and complete an original 15,000-word dissertation under expert supervision. We offer supervision in all areas of Victorian literature, and have particular strengths in social, historical and philosophical approaches to literature, in gender studies, and in the literary culture of the fin de siecle.

Entrance requirements, fees, funding and more...

You can find out about entrance requirements, start dates, fees and scholarship opportunities for all our Masters by Research programmes on the University of Edinburgh’s Degree Finder. Degree Finder links straight through to EUCLID, the online system for applying to postgraduate programmes at the University of Edinburgh.

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